Foundation/Local Chapters/United States/Pedestrian Working Group
The Pedestrian Working Group (PWG) is an OpenStreetMap U.S. Working Group, announced in February 2024, composed of volunteers who collaborate to develop guidelines and tools for detailed pedestrian infrastructure mapping.
Get Involved!
The Pedestrian Working Group meets twice a month via Zoom. Every third Tuesday of the month from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET (convert) is a "general meeting" to discuss ongoing projects and major schema updates. Every first Tuesday from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET (convert) is a "schema meeting," reserved for in-depth conversation about schema proposals and comments. To join one or both of those meetings, fill out this OSM US Working Group registration form. You do not have to be an OSM US member, an expert mapper, or based in the United States to join the PWG – all are welcome! Copies of the agendas for each meeting are available at PWG Meetings.
Ongoing discussion also happens on the OSM US Slack. Relevant channels include #sidewalks, and the private channel for the Pedestrian Working Group.
On the OSM Wiki
Contributions are welcome! Here on the OSM Wiki, the PWG Schema Draft and PWG Guide Draft pages function as collaborative pre-release workspaces for the upcoming version.
The corresponding PWG Schema Draft Talk and PWG Guide Draft Talk pages are used for staging updates and opening discussions on issues and suggestions.
The latest release can be compared to the current draft version using the Compare: PWG Schema and PWG Schema Draft and Compare: PWG Guide and PWG Guide Draft pages.
PWG Guide
The PWG Guide walks through the PWG's tiered system and mapping guidelines in a quick-start format, aimed at people who are newer to pedestrian infrastructure mapping rather than those looking for the full tagging reference.
PWG Schema
The PWG Schema for pedestrian infrastructure mapping covers sidewalks, crossings, curbs, islands, access aisles, and more, using a tiered system (
Bronze, 
Silver, 
Gold, and 
Diamond) that indicates which tags and features are needed for different use cases and levels of imagery/survey quality.
Tools & Resources
Tools to assist with pedestrian infrastructure mapping are being developed, such as:
- A JOSM preset for tagging features such as sidewalks, crossings, and curbs.
- A JOSM plugin for adding sidewalks that can rapidly get pedestrian infrastructure to Bronze level
- Visualizations using Overpass Ultra for curb types, tactile paving, sidewalk tagging on roadways along with GA_Kevin's PWG tier visualizer.
- Speedwalk, a web app to assess tagging consistency and fix some types of errors.
Resources for OSM contributors looking to increase their knowledge of pedestrian mapping and/or the PWG include:
- A recording of "PWG 1.0: Creating the Pedestrian Working Group Schema & Guide" by Amy Bordenave and Jacob Hall at State of the Map US 2026.
- A Mapping Guide developed by the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology. This guide was developed for their OpenSidewalks project on the OSM US Tasking Manager, but contains information about mapping curbs, sidewalks, and connectors.
Note: These tools and resources are independent projects that PWG members find useful, and in some cases have been developed in collaboration with the PWG.
PWG Guide and PWG Schema Releases
| PWG Guide Releases | ||
|---|---|---|
| Latest | Permanent link to latest version: wiki.osm.org/PWG_Guide | |
| Draft | Permanent link to latest draft: wiki.osm.org/PWG_Guide_Draft | |
| Talk | Permanent link to talk page: wiki.osm.org/PWG_Guide_Talk | |
| Version | Date | Changelog |
| 1.0.1 | 2026-01-30 | • Fix inclusion of footway tag on crossing nodes |
| 1.0.0 | 2025-11-19 | • Initial release |
| 1.0.0-beta | 2025-05-23 | • Initial pre-release |
| PWG Schema Releases | ||
|---|---|---|
| Latest | Permanent link to latest version: wiki.osm.org/PWG_Schema | |
| Draft | Permanent link to latest draft: wiki.osm.org/PWG_Schema_Draft | |
| Talk | Permanent link to talk page: wiki.osm.org/PWG_Schema_Talk | |
| Version | Date | Changelog |
| 1.0.1 | 2026-03-28 | • Fix inclusion of surface and width tags on crossing nodes |
| 1.0.0 | 2025-11-19 | • Initial release |
| 1.0.0-beta | 2025-05-23 | • Initial pre-release |
The above tables propagate links and version history updates across PWG-related pages via the PWG Releases Table template.